I Almost Cheated...Southern Plate's Slow Cooker Apple Butter

Okay...I must confess.  When I performed "The Game" (this is how I will refer to Eeny Meeny Miny Mo from now on) on Christy Jordan's Southern Plate cookbook again, "The Game" selected her Slow Cooker Apple Butter.  I about laid down in the floor and quit.  The devil side in me thought "Oh no...there is no way you can do this.  You have never made a jam or a jelly much less apple butter in your life.  You could just go to Cracker Barrel and buy some of theirs.  You are going to have to cheat.  Just pick another recipe...no one will be the wiser."  But then my angelic side said "You idiot!!  You promised that you would not cheat on the game.  Reread your first post.  This is why you are doing this whole food blog thing.  You wanted to try new things that normally you would not have considered cooking!  Good grief!!  Quit whining and get on with it"  So obviously, I listened to my angelic side and forged ahead.

As I read through the recipe, it said that you could either can the apple butter or just put it in the refrigerator.  When I saw the word "can", I about laid on the floor again.  WHAT??!!  But then that brought back wonderful memories of standing in the kitchen with my Bigmama helping her make muscadine jelly and peach preserves. Those are some of my favorite memories of her.  After we finished, she would bake homemade Bigmama biscuits, and we would sit down, slather the biscuit with butter ( Oh yes Food Police.. you would have loved it) and those homemade peach preserves, and all was right with the world.   I remember, though, that she had a pressure cooker doing all this, and it would whistle and steam, and I thought "Oh my gosh!!  That is going to make me hot!  I cannot do this!"  I also remembered a lecture from Nursing School 30 years ago about botulism and home canned foods.  I didn't want to give botulism to my family and friends.   AGH!!

So I called my Friend-In-Law - Patricia.  A little back story...Food Police is married to her son Kyle ( I need a nickname for him) so that makes her a Friend -in-Law - Right??   I am so blessed to have she and her husband - Rayford -  as Friends-in Law.  I could not have picked better Friends- in-Law.  Patricia and Rayford have a beautiful vegetable garden, and they can all their garden goodness.  She promised that she would help me with the canning process, and we would not have to use a pressure cooker and get hot or get botulism.  Also, on a side note, I did find that Christy Jordan has a wonderful tutorial showing how to can on her website at http://www.southernplate.com/.  But I had more fun canning with Friend-in-Law!!

So let's get started!

You need applesauce, Granny Smith apples, sugar, apple juice, cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground allspice.  I thought where is the butter?  Remember I have never made this before!!!

You add all the ingredients into the crockpot and then peel your apples.  It was very therapeutic peeling all those apples. 

I chopped those apples into little pieces.  It was very therapeutic chopping all those apples.

You put all those apple pieces into the crock pot with the other ingredients, mix well, and cook on low for 8-10 hours. I almost thought I was not going to have enough room in my crockpot, but it worked.   I did this at 10:00 pm at night so that when I woke up the next morning. I would smell the deliciousness.  It smelled like Christmas morning!!

Oops.  I forgot I took a picture of it all mixed up.  Here you go.  You can see how full the crockpot is!! 

Once you let it cook 10 hours on low, you take the top off and let it continue cooking to get some of the liquid out.  I had already started putting some in cans when I took this picture, but you can see that it cooked down about an inch from where we started.  The color is glorious, and the smell is beyond belief, and the taste is ..... I can't think of an adjective that would do it justice plus I can't figure out how to work the thesaurus on this blog.  YUM!!!

Look at it in those little pint-sized Mason Jars.  Friend-in-Law did all of this for me.  I would have messed up if Friend-in-Law was not here.  She said because the apple butter was so hot, if we had put it in the cold jars, they would have cracked.  So we added some water to the jars, heated it up in the microwave, poured it out, and added the apple butter to the jar.  I just watched and took pictures. 

Once you get them all filled, you put on the little seals and rings, and place them in the almost boiling water bath.  I can't remember why it was almost boiling but not boiling.  I will have to ask.  You bring it to a boil and let it go for 10 minutes.

All done...  Aren't they beautiful? What is so much fun is that you get to hear the little thunk when the can seals.  That means we won't get botulism.   I didn't have to lay down on the floor at anytime during this process.  It really was pretty easy.  I even think I might could do it by myself.  These would be awesome to give as Christmas gifts.   

Before I give you the recipe, I have to tell you a quick story about Husband Fred and the Apple Butter.  He gets up at 5:00 in the morning to go to work.  I told him he could get some of the Apple Butter and try it out on some toast.  I told him it would be a little runny, but it would be ok.  He came home for lunch that day, and I asked him how he had liked it.  And he says.....Well, you forgot to get bread when you went to the Grocery store so I.....ARE YOU READY?... put it over cereal."  WHAT???  Food Police and I both asked him if the cereal had milk in it.  He looked at us like we were growing horns out of our head.  I looked at him like he was growing horns out of his head.  He said "Of course not!"  He said it was delicious over his Special K Almond Crunch cereal.  So you know if it tastes good on cereal, it is good.

Here is the recipe....

Slow Cooker Apple Butter

Christy Jordan

Southern Plate Cookbook

Two 3-pound (50 ounce) jars unsweetend applesauce

3 pounds Granny Smith apples

4 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups apple juice

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground allspice

Peel and cut the apples into thin slices.  Place all the ingredients n a slow cooker and stir.  Cover and cook on low overnight for 8 - 10 hours.  Remove the cover and keep cooking until some of the liquid has gone.  ( I did mine on High after removing the cover, and let it go another hour or so).  Pour into jars and either can or refrigerate.

Christy said hers made 8; mine made 7 probably because Husband Fred poured out a bunch on his cereal!!

Go have a great day!!